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Cinemaware founder: Movie tie-ins are "generally a piece of crap"

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Games. Movies. Games and movies. Cinemaware founder Bob Jacob reckons games of movies are pretty much doomed to failure.

"There are inherent problems" with the whole process of creating games based on films, the veteran developer told Gamasutra, adding that the "reality is that the time it takes a film to [hit theaters after being green-lit] is never more than a year. What kind of a game can you do in a year? Generally a piece of crap."

This basic problem is the reason why so many "bad games have been made on film licenses," Jacob said.

Jacob went on to say that the movie style adopted by many of today's biggest games was an inevitability.

"If you look at some of the best-selling games right now -- if you look at Uncharted 2, the recent Call of Duty games -- they are extremely cinematic games," he said.

"Twenty-three years ago I knew that was going to happen. There was no question; that's the way it had to go. We had to make the games more movie-like."

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Patrick Garratt avatar

Patrick Garratt

Founder & Publisher (Former)

Patrick Garratt is a games media legend - and not just by reputation. He was named as such in the UK's 'Games Media Awards', the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. After garnering experience on countless gaming magazines, he joined Eurogamer and later split from that brand to create VG247, putting the site on the map with fast, 24-hour a day coverage, and assembling the site's earliest editorial teams. He retired from VG247, and the games industry, in 2017.
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